Unconditional Loyalty
Summary: Kurapika is a Kurutanian beauty but keeps it a secret for his and Pairo's safety, he's also the bookworm that doesn't fit in among the towns' people and Leorio is the cursed prince all thanks to his own attitude. Both are from different worlds, yet they suffer from the same feeling of isolation. A parody of Disney's Beauty & The Beast. Alternate Universe setting.
Disclaimer: I certainly do not own anything of the Disney franchise, and I don't even own Togashi sensei's wonderful works for the Hunter X Hunter anime and manga. This is purely for fan entertainment, and to fulfill my craving for writing a Leorio and Kurapika centered fanfic.
Pairings: Leorio and Kurapika, slight Pokkles and Ponzu.
Author's note: We were all busy with preparing and shopping for the new baby's needs, she's gonna be in the household soon, either at the end of May or beginning of June. And my old laptop just has to fail on me just as when I managed to make time for Chapter 9 of this fanfic.
Oh, a little scene for the Pokkle and Ponzu pairing in this chapter. And if you're an internet junkie like myself, to the point that you have seen all sorts of HXH fanarts, you will know where I get this cute pairing's cheesy lines from. But of course, important bonding moments for our main pairing too, Kurapika is warming up to the Beast.
Italic font like this one, indicates a character's inner thoughts and feelings.
The door to Kurapika's bedroom creaks open, the said occupant silently emerges and peeks from left to right, checking to see if anyone is around. Feeling sure that no one sees him, he tries his best to step out of his bedroom without making any sound and soon he managed to walk through the hallway. Given the choice, he prefers not to do this, but his hunger pangs betrayed him.
And I would kill myself before begging that brash idiot for food. He thought to himself resentfully.
Red curtains with gold trimmings adorned the whole hallway that leads to where he believed the kitchen is. Unknown to him, behind one of these grand curtains, is where Pokkles and a female feather duster are secretly hiding to have their private moments.
''You are like the arrow to my heart, my beautiful Ponzu!''
''Oh no, no, no, no, no… Not as much as you, monsieur. You are the bee to my pollens,'' the feather duster by the name Ponzu flirts back to her lover.
Their relationship was known by every enchanted object in the castle, and everyone agreed to keep it a secret from their master. There is no way of telling how the Beast will react to the two of his servants having a romantic relationship.
Pokkles was already holding Ponzu in his metallic arms, about to kiss her, when he suddenly spotted the new prisoner walking past them. Without thinking, he lets Ponzu go, causing her to drop to the carpeted floor. She was about to question his actions angrily when he interrupts, ''The blonde lad! He has emerged!'' Soon they wasted no time in following him from behind, hiding in the curtains while doing so.
In the castle's kitchen, Mito, Gon and all of the enchanted kitchen utensils are cleaning up the cold, untouched dinner that were meant for their master and Kurapika. ''Come on, Gon. Into the cupboard with the other little cups. You kids ought to sleep early.''
''Aww. But I'm not sleepy, aunt Mito.''
''Yes you are. You can always talk to the new boy tomorrow.''
Gon tries to argue back childishly, he was still thrilled about having a new person in the castle. However once he jumps into the kitchen cupboard that contains all of the other cup children, he instantly fell asleep.
Later a banging of pots and pans comes from a giant stove. The said stove wasn't being happy about his cooking left untouched. ''I work and I slave all day, and for what? A culinary masterpiece goes to waste!''
''Oh, stop your grousing. It's been a long night for all of us too. It's not surprising at all that the young man wouldn't want to eat on his first day being a prisoner.'' Mito chastised the stove while frowning.
Hanzo, who is still a little mad that he gets yelled at by their master because of Kurapika, disagreed. ''Well, if you ask me, he was just being stubborn. After all, the master did say PLEASE.''
Mito sighed and replied, ''But also if the master doesn't learn how to control his temper, he won't be able to break the ...''
She could have said more, but she stopped once the subject of their conversation enters into the kitchen.
''Hahaha! Splendid to see you out and about, monsieur. So, what can we do for you?'' Hanzo quickly said to the blonde boy before anyone could say more about the spell that turned them into objects and furnitures.
Soon Pokkles and Ponzu come running in to join Kurapika as well, just as curious about his reasons for leaving his bedroom.
''Gomen… I didn't mean to bother everyone here. I am hungry so I thought maybe I could get a few bites and…''
''Oh! You are?! Hear that everyone?! He's hungry. Stoke the fire, break out the silver, wake the china!'' Mito ordered the kitchen utensils excitedly. The fire on the giant stove roars to life, and drawers open to reveal silverwares and plates getting to work.
Kurapika couldn't be any more grateful. He knew that these animated objects aren't as bad as the Beast, but he had the impression that he wouldn't be treated kindly for being a prisoner.
They even managed to entertain him with a show performance that consists of all of the objects dancing while making him various luxurious delicacies. It felt too much like a dream to him, never in his whole life did he expect this. Both he and Pairo are used to eating plain bread with butter, with some occasional chicken eggs for most of their meals, because they are trying hard to save money to buy the parts and supplies for most of Pairo's inventions. But right now, he is served with beef, sausages, puddings, cakes, ramen noodles and many other delicious foods.
Once he had finished with his food, everyone stopped with their dancing and proceed to clean up.
''Why… arigatou. That was wonderful.'' Kurapika complimented everyone in the kitchen while clapping his hands.
''It's nothing, hahaha, good show, wasn't it?'' Hanzo said. At the same time, he noticed that the clock on his face already showed that it is almost midnight. ''Look at the time. Now, it's off to bed, off to bed, sir.''
However Kurapika is still feeling the slight rush of adrenaline and excitement after they performed a spectacular show in front of him. ''Oh, I couldn't possibly go to bed now. It's my first time in an enchanted castle.''
Both Pokkles and Hanzo started arguing heatedly, blaming each other for revealing the ultimate secret to Kurapika. It made the blonde bookworm sweat dropped and he explained, ''I, um, figured it out for myself. It isn't everyday that one gets to enter into a mysterious castle with talking objects, see.''
They both look at him for a moment and then stopped fighting. They aren't sure what to do now with their master's prisoner knowing half of their secret. It has been an unspoken agreement between them that it's best if Kurapika could be friends with the Beast, heck even like him without knowing that the Beast was originally a human prince. In their opinion, it makes a possible new friendship more genuine. Only true love could break the spell after all.
Of course Kurapika's gender might make it more complicated since the Beast seemed to be openly straight, but they are running out of time. Not everyone could easily find this castle and it would probably be a slim chance for a female person to be wandering alone in a forest before she enters a mysterious building.
Once the talking clock and candle settled themselves, Kurapika continued, ''I'd like to look around, if that's all right.''
Pokkles perked up excitedly, happy that the young lad is at least feeling comfortable enough to explore around. ''Would you like a tour?''
''Wait a second, wait a second. I'm not sure that's such a good idea.'' Hanzo nervously interjected. He whispered to his best friend, ''We can't let him go around in certain places that the master had forbidden him to go.''
This made Kurapika smiled knowingly, he is near enough to be able to hear the whisper. He kneels down, explaining to them that he will only go to places that they are sure it is alright to go to without having their master to be enraged at them.
And so, in the middle of the night, the two best friends show Kurapika around the castle. All three of them filled with hopes, with Pokkles and Hanzo hoping that what they're doing will contribute to Kurapika bonding with the Beast. As for Kurapika, he had hoped that getting used to the castle will make being a prisoner more tolerable.
The three managed to walk around the antique collection room, and the other bedrooms that are similar to Kurapika's. All this while Hanzo had kept himself busy by explaining the details and history behind the architecture construction of the castle and some of the art pieces that adorned the halls. It only made Kurapika more curious as in why such a long existing large castle would remain unknown to the common people outside. He reminds himself in his thoughts to ask them about the first owners of this castle when the time is right.
And then, he spotted the same grand staircase again. The same one that leads to the forbidden West Wing. Curiously he walked up the stairs to peek. He was immediately stopped by Pokkles and Hanzo though.
''What's up there?''
''Where? Up there? Nothing. Absolutely nothing of interest at all in the West Wing. Dusty, dull, very boring.'' both of them quickly replied.
Kurapika had always been a curious individual, eager to explore the world and everything that is unknown. So instead of walking away from the grand stairs, their words only serves to make him more determined as in what the Beast is trying to hide. ''Hmmm, if nothing is there, he absolutely has no reason to hide it from me.''
''The master is hiding nothing! Let's go somewhere else, sir!'' Both of the talking objects started to panic.
''Then it wouldn't be forbidden. I won't touch anything; I just want to have a look. ''
He steps over them, but they dash up and block him again. ''The gardens, or the library perhaps?'' Pokkles tried to distract the blonde.
That seemed to stir up the bookworm's interest. There is no such thing as too many books to read for him. He begins to follow them, but his curiosity overtakes him again.
I could always visit the library anytime, but I might not get the chance to see the West Wing again. I do want to find out more about the Beast's identity and how he came to be.
And he waited until they lost their attention on him, still rambling about the books that the library has. They seemed to forget to look behind them to make sure that he is truly still following them.
He turns back to the direction of the West Wing. His excitement begins to dwindle, though, when he enters the hallway leading to the Beast's secret lair. It started to look eerily dark and gloomy, it has a different air from the other room's hallways in this castle. As he walks down the hall, he stops to look at a mirror that was hanged on the hall's wall. It has been shattered into several pieces.
Now why is this mirror still here? Why would anyone still keep broken items? The rest of the castle is well kept.
He reaches the end of the hall and finds a closed door with a gargoyle designed doorknob. He takes a deep breath to calm himself down, then reaches out and opens the door.
It reveals a room filled with broken furnitures. He is truly shocked by everything that he sees. He wanders around, looking, and knocks over a table, but he catches it before it crashes to the floor.
He then turns his head and sees a shredded portrait painting on the wall on his right side. Because the room was dark, he can only see some parts of the portrait. It seemed to be a portrait of a dark haired man with glasses. But just like with everything else in the room, some parts of the portrait were missing, and Kurapika couldn't make out how the man in the picture really looked like.
To his surprise, a faint pinkish glow appeared on his left side. He whips his head towards the direction of the glow, and sees a rose under a bell jar on a small round table. He walks over to it, his eyes transfixed. He reaches out, and then lifts off the jar, leaving the glowing rose unprotected.
He tries to touch the rose to examine it, but before he could do so, a large shadow falls over him. Unknown to him, the Beast has been on the balcony, already sees the blonde boy entering into his secret lair.
The brown furred creature jumps back into the room, then slams the bell jar back on the rose, effectively covering it. He then turns his attention to Kurapika, growling low.
''Why did you come here?!''
This serves to frighten Kurapika, and he backs away while quietly apologizing for intruding the Beast's privacy. Unfortunately, the Beast is filled with too much anger to accept it. No one knows what would happen if the enchanted rose given by the enchantress is touched by a stranger and it makes the Beast all the more determined to protect it.
After another round of yelling from him, he started to trash random furnitures about, so Kurapika runs while shielding himself from pieces of broken items. He is almost near to the door, but he tries to plead with the Beast again timidly. ''Please, stop… We could talk…''
''GET OOOUUUTTTTT!''
That loud and animalistic growl finally made the youth give up; he turns and flees the room.
After a few seconds, the cursed prince calms down, then falls into despair, finally realizing that he may have destroyed his chances with Kurapika. He uses his large paw-like hands to cover his own face in shame and regret.
The Kurutanian teen rushes down the grand stairs, at the same time reach the stairway and grab his cloak that he remembered he had left hanging there when he first arrived in this castle. Wrapping the cloak around himself, he quickly opens the entrance door, and a burst of cold wind with snow instantly hits his face but he still dashed forward, eager to leave the dark castle.
Eventually he found Birdie still being tied up to a dead tree's branch. He unleashed the large hybrid bird and proceeded to ride on it. He begins to ride through the forest, but Birdie comes to a stop.
To both of their shock, a pack of hungry wolves are slowly approaching them. Kurapika gasps, then pulls the reins and begins to try to escape from them, using another direction.
In his determination to get back home to Pairo again safe and sound, he starts to put his brain into work. An idea came and he made Birdie run from side to side, in order for the wolves to knock themselves into trees sideways. From his view, he could see about five to six of them lying on the thick snowy ground in pain. His relief is short lived; however, as about four more are gaining on him.
Birdie runs into a frozen pond suddenly, and it collapses due to both of their weight. The wolves chase them into the icy water. One had drowned, but Birdie is able to get out of the water before anything serious happens. Kurapika had been too traumatized by the whole situation that he could hardly feel cold at all.
Soon three wolves surround them after they reached on a dead end pathway. Birdie bucks, accidentally throwing Kurapika off. Its reins
had gotten tangled around a tree branch. The hungry canines begin their attack on the giant hybrid bird, but Kurapika comes to his rescue and beats them away with two branches that he found on the ground. In the Kuruta tribe's village, almost everyone learns how to use martial arts and weapons like wooden swords so Kurapika decided to put his swordsman's skill to good use.
However, welding two branch sticks instead of actual swords proved to be a disadvantage. He might be able to fend them off, but he can't seem to deliver hard enough blows to these wolves to immobilize them. One wolf grabs one of his branch stick with its mouth and breaks half of it off, leaving Kurapika almost defenseless. Another leap at him, grabbing the corner of his cloak and swiftly drag him to the ground. He looks up and sees the same wolf about to jump on top of him. Before it could attack Kurapika though, it is caught in mid-air by a large furred hand. The hand belonged to the Beast, to Kurapika's surprise.
He actually comes all the way here by foot just to save me?
The Beast roars fiercely at the wolf's face and flings it away to the ground, then stands behind Kurapika to defend him from two more wolves. Soon it becomes a battle of fangs and claws between the Beast and the wolves. One bites hard into the Beast's bare shoulder, and the other trying to distract him by attacking randomly. Finally, the Beast throws the wolf that bit him against a tree, knocking it out. The other turn around to run, fearing the Beast's overwhelming strength.
After everything had calmed down, the Beast turns back to Kurapika, who had been watching the whole fight while still lying down. He looks at him despairingly, and Kurapika noticed that his right shoulder is bleeding. Before he could say a word, the Beast collapses onto the snowy ground, slowly becoming unconscious.
Kurapika almost wanted to get onto Birdie to continue his journey home, but his thoughts went back to the Beast. He is truly grateful to be still alive, and he remembered all those times when he often tells Kuroro, the antique collector, that it pays to be kind, even more so to those who had helped you. Of course, Kuroro would just sneer at him and remarked that the world isn't fair to kind people.
I suppose it doesn't hurt to at least send the Beast back to his castle before I go home. Doing so would at least show that I am not the same as that conceited, egoistic bastard.
And so he walks over to the lying form of the Beast. He couldn't possibly carry him up by himself, the Beast looked like he weighs at least 300 pounds. Once again, relying on his intellect, he managed to use some large rocks and thick branches as leverage to get the Beast up and Birdie helped out by adjusting itself so that it could carry the Beast on its back. Knowing that adding more weight will burden the loyal bird, Kurapika decided to just walk by foot while leading Birdie back to the castle.
Somehow with the help of the enchanted objects in the castle, the Beast was able to wake up and get comfortable on a sofa just by the fireplace. They're all in the same room as him, doing whatever they can to keep him warm.
As for Kurapika, his initial plan of leaving the Beast at the castle had backfired all thanks to his own guilt conscious. A part of him felt that he ought to keep his promise to stay, because if it wasn't for him, the Beast wouldn't have gotten himself injured. And, another part of him also wanted to see how things go once both of them had helped each other. Something tells him that the Beast is much more than meets the eye. Sure, he could work on his temper, but everyone has his or her own flaws, right?
With all of this in his thoughts, he proceeded to pour hot water out of Miss Mito the teapot, then soaks a rag in the water, intending to use it to clean up the Beast's wounds on his left shoulder. The Beast is busy licking his own wounds though.
When the sentient furred creature knew what Kurapika is trying to do with the warm rag, he growls at him as a way to tell him to go away. Kurapika didn't give up and tried again, this time successfully applied the rag on his wound. But the Beast started to roar ferociously in pain and it scares everyone in the room away, except for the blonde lad.
''That hurts baka!''
''If you'd hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much.''
''Well if you hadn't run away, this wouldn't have happened!''
''Well if you hadn't trashed around earlier, I wouldn't have run away!''
That serves to remind the Beast again the reason why all of this happened. Once again he tries to argue back indignantly though. He detests losing in any arguments.
''Well you shouldn't have been in the West Wing!''
''Well you should learn to control your temper! Wouldn't kill you at all if we had discussed things like civilized individuals.''
This time the Beast give up trying to find another point to argue about, so he huffed and sulked, allowing Kurapika to continue with the wound cleaning.
The enchanted objects that had been hiding out of fear soon slowly emerged again, pleasantly surprised to see that Kurapika has conquered the Beast, quelling his temper.
''Now, hold still. This may sting a little. I've put some herbs into the water, it acts as an antiseptic.'' Kurapika gently informed the Beast. The Beast's eyes widened, surprised that someone actually made an effort to be nice to him. Normally most people wouldn't even try because they would have been too afraid of him. As the blonde had said, it does sting, but the Beast didn't feel like giving the boy another round of yelling or growling. He did remember that he is supposed to make Kurapika grow closer to him so he really didn't want to risk having the boy to leave him again. He grits his teeth in an effort to hold in the pain.
''By the way, arigatou, for saving my life.'' Kurapika said to him tenderly. His large brown eyes gave out a warm light and the Beast instantly feels his own face burning a little. He have no idea what he is embarrassed about, but for sure its not a bad thing.
''Um… uh… You're welcome, I guess.''
Neither the both of them realize that after tonight, it will be the start of something new between them. Something that will change everything the way they think of each other, and even the way they think of life itself.
I figured that this chapter would be the right time for Kurapika to display a little bit of his fighting prowess. I know in this universe he isn't a Hunter but he is still a Kuruta and at least he could be more independent than Belle. I had been resting at home for a month now, so I decided to get this chapter longer than the first few ones, as usual to make up for my slow updates. I'm only wondering now if Kurapika could call the Beast by his real name in later chapters. It will make writing easier but at the same time some plot holes might happen.
Like always, thank you all for reading this, I had fun, and would really be excited if I can get reviews or comments. ^_^